In English clauses we usually find a sequence of . This sequence is relatively as English no longer has sufficient morphological (inflectional
) marking to identify the various unambiguously. Therefore, this identification is mainly established by means of . In other words, we use information to decide which constituent is the subject or the object, for example. Languages of this sort are often called languages
.
German, on the other hand, is more of an language, expressing many grammatical relations by the means of . Therefore, the elements can be moved around more in a German clause, although SVO is quite common as well.
Compare:
Meine Mutter ruft den Notarzt. ~ Den Notarzt ruft meine Mutter.
My mother is calling an ambulance. ≠ An ambulance is calling my mother.